NCAA Issues
The NBA season is ending tonight, so let’s talk college sports.
Okay, let me explain.
Tomorrow I am going to be presenting a paper at the Western Social Science Association meetings in Salt Lake City. The session I am part of focuses on the NCAA. The other three papers in the session – from Jim Peach, James Webb, and Leila Pratt – will focus on general problems with the NCAA. My paper – co-authored with Jennifer VanGilder, Rob Simmons, and Kaitlyn Myer – will focus on the role race plays in the drafting of running backs in the NFL draft.
I do have a comment on problems with the NCAA. To see this comment, though, let me refer everyone to an article in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal. As Darren Everson reports, the DOJ (has been) Asked to Probe BCS Under Antitrust Law (DOJ is the Department of Justice).
Here is how Darren’s article begins:
A group of law and economics professors and practitioners has asked the Department of Justice to investigate college football's Bowl Championship Series under antitrust law.
In a letter, a copy of which was provided to The Wall Street Journal before it was made public, the 21 signatories assert that the BCS is a cartel that "secures market access and revenue" for its favored members.
The article focuses primarily on the content of the letter we signed. At the end of the article, though, Darren reveals a question I ask my sports economics class each year on the first day of class. And as Darren notes, previously everyone always got this wrong. Will this happen again next fall? We will see.
Since I will be in Salt Lake City tomorrow, there won’t be any posting on Thursday (at least, not during the day). But my picks for the True Hoop Smackdown are due tomorrow night, so there should be some discussion of the NBA and the upcoming playoffs on Friday (I think).
- DJ